Dear world: PUMPKINS ARE FOOD!

I wrote this entry a couple weeks ago, but figured I’d wait until post-Halloween to post it. I’m sure there are plenty of pumpkins sitting on porches and cheap at grocery stores (and more than plenty in the trash!) that people could use the reminder that, hey, pumpkins are food. They’re just big squashes. Sure, they’re great for carving faces into, but they’re equally as great to eat.

While out hunting for stuff the other night, an accomplice and I came across tons of apples, pears, and pumpkins. We snagged all we could, washed everything up, and I decided to make some stuff. With the vegan food swap coming up I figured I’d make something quick for that so I whipped up a batch of cookie/bar/scone something-or-others (I’m horrible at baking and following recipes… if it’s not obvious). I’m sort of an all-or-nothing person. I’ll eat a whole package of cookies on my own, but if I’m baking for myself I really prefer healthier sugar-free fruit-sweetened sort of stuff. So…

Apples, pears, pumpkins… a whole trunkload of them!

Since I wanted to be able to share the recipe with my dog-friend Patrick who is allergic to everything (corn/soy/wheat/pollen/grass/ragweed) I made a quick flour out of half oats and half brown rice (roughly 1c of each?).

After blending the oats and rice into flour, I added the rest of the dry ingredients. Spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice) a little (too much… oops) salt, and some baking powder.

While I was messing with the dry stuff, I was steaming some pumpkin that I cubed up.

Once the pumpkin was steamed, I blended it up with a couple apples, a pear, and just enough water to make them all into a liquid.Mixed the wet with the dry to make a batter, poured it into a brownie pan, and baked until they looked done (about half an hour?). The final result? Not too sweet, not quite cookie-shaped, sort of scone-like pumpkin-y spiced… things. I over-compensated on the salt, but the saltiness actually goes really well with sweet, so a little jam on these dudes or a piece of fruit and they were pretty awesome. Patrick definitely approved.